SeedCo introduces new maize, sorghum varieties

LISTED seed manufacturer, SeedCo Zimbabwe has introduced new maize and sorghum varieties that seek to provide cost-effective and high yields that boost agriculture output and national food security.

This comes as the country is anticipating economic growth driven by good agriculture production.

SeedCo agronomist covering the Matabeleland region Mr Wallace Banda last week told Sunday News Business of the new varieties.

“As SeedCo we breed new varieties in all our categories that is from 300 series to 700 from the early maturing to late maturing. In the early maturing categories which is the 301 series that we had, we have now introduced the 303 series. In the next category we had the 403 now we have 419 then in the 500 series we now have the 555 which is a very good variety.

“In the 600 series we have now introduced the 659, 657 while in the 700 series we have introduced the 729. The reason why we came up with these new varieties is because we want the farmer to be profitable and to benefit a lot from high yield,” said Mr Banda.

The seed producer has also introduced new sorghum varieties that are suitable for brewing beer as well as mealie-meal.

“The other thing that we did as a company is that we bred a new variety in sorghum that is HX102. It is a red sorghum, we discovered that most of the farmers especially in the Matabeleland region like brewing beer so it’s good for brewing beer and it’s also good for mealie-meal.

“The advantage of sorghum is that it is an early drought tolerant crop which matures early so it suites well especially in Matabeleland North and South and we encourage farmers to plant sorghum as a small grain,” Mr Banda said. —@nyeve14